Surviving
General#
Humans do not really die in Outbreak, they convert. Almost everything a zombie does to you feeds a meter, and when that meter fills you change sides. Managing it is the whole game.
There are two separate systems doing this, and they are easy to confuse:
| What it is | How it ends you | |
|---|---|---|
| Radiation | A 0 to 100 meter that every zombie hit feeds | Reaching 100 turns you |
| Infection | A condition you either have or do not | Having it makes radiation climb by itself |
Being infected does not turn you. It makes the meter fill without anyone touching you, which usually amounts to the same thing.
The Pages#
| Page | Covers |
|---|---|
| Radiation | The meter, its four thresholds, and everything that raises or lowers it |
| Infection | Bite chances, the symptoms, and how to cure it |
| Armor | Why leather and chainmail do completely different jobs, and the Gas Mask |
| Broken Legs | Fall damage, what it costs you, and the one item that fixes it |
The Short Version#
If you read nothing else:
- Leather stops infection. Chainmail does not. Iron and chainmail reduce damage only, and every hit that lands on you still rolls infection at the full rate.
- The Gas Mask switches zombie melee off completely. At 200 gold in the Item Shop it is the best purchase in the game.
- Radiation Tablets are the answer to ranged radiation. Armor does nothing against a Spitter or a Nuker.
- A Syringe is the only reliable cure for infection, and it cannot be bought at any price. Three Bandages make one.
- Do not take big falls. Broken legs remove sprinting and leave a blood trail, and only a Bandage fixes them.
Hunger#
Humans start each round already hungry: most of your saturation is stripped at spawn. Swinging a melee weapon burns through it faster, which is what the Lightweight upgrade exists for.
Bread and rotten flesh turn up in loot chests. Rotten flesh will make you sick.
Zombies are locked at three shanks permanently and never need to eat.
Human on Human#
Humans cannot damage each other. The one exception is a player publicly outed by the Scanner: once a group knows somebody is infected, they can be executed.
Killing them does not remove them, they still respawn as a zombie. What it buys the group is their gear and control over when the turn happens.